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A big change is rolling out on Reddit that will affect the way you post and view images on the site. Through a thread created by a Reddit product team member named Andy (u/amg137), the site announced that it's launching an image-upload tool for single photos and GIFs on select subreddits. This means the site is shifting away from its informal partner Imgur, which currently hosts the majority of Reddit's uploaded images.

With the tool, users will be able to upload images up to 20MB and GIFs up to 100MB in size directly to Reddit. When viewing a thread that started with an image or a GIF, users will click on the thread and be taken to the thread page, with the media at the top and the comments below.

With Imgur-hosted images, clicking on the Reddit link takes you directly to that image on Imgur's site. To see thread discussion, you had to click on the "comments" link directly below it. Andy explains in the post that the company is hoping the native image tool will make the Reddit experience more seamless. "For a long time, other image hosting services have been an integral part of how content is shared on Reddit—we’re grateful to those teams, but are looking forward to bringing you a more seamless experience with this new feature," he writes.

Also, users will have to do less tapping to see images and media from within Reddit's mobile apps since they'll be staying within the app the entire time.

Reddit plans to launch the image tool over 50 more subreddits in the coming weeks, in addition to the 16 that began the rollout. Now, anyone can test out the tool on these subreddits: /r/GetMotivated, /r/EarthPorn, /r/Gaming, /r/Space, /r/OldSchoolCool, /r/Sports, /r/Art, /r/Aww, /r/Dataisbeautiful, /r/Food, /r/Funny, /r/Gifs, /r/mildlyinteresting, /r/movies, /r/photoshopbattles, and /r/pics.

Image-hosting site Imgur could lose a lot of page views and revenue if enough users favor Reddit's tool. In a statement to TechCrunch, Imgur emphasized the strength of its own community and how Reddit users can still upload with Imgur if they please. "This isn’t a surprise. Tools for uploading images are an expected part of any platform these days," the statement says. "While Imgur started as a simple image-sharing service, it’s evolved beyond that and is now a massive community of people sharing and discovering the most awesome images from all around the Internet. We’re super focused on our mission to surface up the world’s most entertaining content and making Imgur the best visual community in the world. That said, nothing will change for Reddit users who would like to use Imgur to share their images on Reddit."

A statement from Reddit echoed the choice that users have going forward: "For many years, Imgur has been an integral part of Reddit—we are grateful to them for enabling our users to share the things they love and have a richer content experience. At this time, the Reddit community can still choose to use Imgur or other sites for image hosting."